A characteristic in the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) Machine to Machine (M2M) communication specification is small data transmission, for example, it is only necessary to transfer small amount of data between a Machine Type Communication (MTC) terminal and an MTC server.
In view of this characteristic of small data transmission, existing network optimization methods are as follows:
A1. The small data is transferred in a short message, where the short message can be transferred via an SGs interface between a Mobility Management Entity (MME) and a Mobile Switching Center (MSC)/a Visitor Location Register (VLR); and
A2. Data is transmitted along with a signalling message to an MME/SGSN (Serving GPRS Support Node) or other mobility management entities, and the MME/SGSN forwards the data directly to an MTC server, and at this time a new interface will be introduced between the MME/SGSN and the MTC server.
In a Long Term Evolution (LTE) system, a User Equipment (UE) has to establish its Packet Data Network (PDN) connection to a default Access Point Name (APN) in an attach-to-network procedure. Resources of network nodes, e.g., resources at an evolved Node B (eNB), an MME, a Serving Gateway (SGW), a Packet Data Network (PDN) Gateway (PGW), etc., will be occupied after this PDN connection is established. These resources generally include a storage resource at a network node, the identifier of a tunnel of a user plane connection and other user plane resources. The LTE system is designed as such from the perspective of the characteristic of “Always-On” to ensure that the UE can establish a connection required for communication so long as the UE is attached to the LTE network, so a user can communication conveniently and rapidly.
Since the small amount of data is transmitted along with a signalling message, i.e., on a signalling plane, in both of the foregoing methods A1 and A2, the small data is transmitted without using any user plane resource. In view of such a characteristic that there are a very large number of MTC terminals in M2M communication and transmission of only small data is required for the majority of the MTC terminals, a considerable waste of network resources will inevitably result if PDN connections are established for the large number of MTC terminals on the LTE network but are not used in practical communication.
In general, it is highly desirable for those skilled in the art to address a technical problem of how to alleviate a waste of network resources under the foregoing circumstance.